Priceline case puts focus on IR laws

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PRIME Minister John Howard yesterday warned companies they could
not use his WorkChoices laws to sack staff only to re-advertise the
same jobs at a lower salary, but hours later he backed a firm
accused of doing precisely that.

Cosmetics retailer Priceline has become a test case for the much
wider powers under WorkChoices for large firms to sack workers for
"operational reasons".

Victorian Workplace Advocate Tony Lawrence has vowed to hold an
inquiry into similar cases, which will report within months 
just before the federal election.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled that
Priceline did not break the law when it sacked Andrew
Cruickshank.

The company had posted a $17.2 million loss before the
termination, and retrenched 32 other staff. Mr Cruickshank argued
that his job as a "space planner" designing store lay-outs had then
been advertised for $25,000 less a year. But Commissioner Brendan
Eames said because "at least part of" the firm's decision for the
redundancy was based on its financial position, the sacking was
legal.

"The concept of an operational reason is much broader than the
idea of an operational requirement (the ground which existed in
previous unfair dismissal provisions)," he said.

Under WorkChoices, the commission did not have to decide if
there was a "valid reason" for the sacking  only satisfy
itself that an operational reason had been among the
justifications.

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey declared himself alarmed
at initial reports of the case, saying allowing firms to sack staff
and hire cheaper labour was never the intent of WorkChoices. "We
will certainly have a very close look at it and if we need to
change the law, we will," he said.

But ACTU secretary Greg Combet said the laws allowed that to
happen.

"Even in bigger businesses you are not protected against being
unfairly sacked and it is clearly lawful under the laws that you
can be sacked and replaced with someone who will do the same job
for less," he said.

Priceline spokesman Rob Tassie rejected suggestions the firm had
advertised the same job as had been held by Mr Cruickshank. "It was
not the same role the person wouldn't have been capable of
doing the same things," he told The Age.

Mr Lawrence said he was concerned that WorkChoices had little
protection for workers in larger firms. "Where do you draw the
line?" he said. "If you have a company that has a slightly less
than expected turnover for a quarter or a year, it might be said
that this constitutes an economic reason allowing the company to
terminate the employment of 50 employees at $100,000 and employ 50
employees at $50,000."

Labor's industrial relations spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, pledged
to overturn the law. "I want to make this very clear, under a Rudd
Labor government and our new industrial relations system, you won't
be able to be dismissed just to be replaced by a cheaper worker,"
she said.

■After controversy over new individual contracts for
casual staff, chocolate company Darrell Lea has stopped offering
AWAs to new casuals and will instead employ staff on the award.